Immune cells and checkpoints in pancreatic adenocarcinoma: Association with clinical and pathological characteristics.

INTRODUCTION: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is an extremely aggressive neoplasm, with many challenges to be overcome in order to achieve a truly effective treatment. It is characterized by a mostly immunosuppressed environment, with dysfunctional immune cells and active immunoinhibitory pathways that favor tumor evasion and progression. Thus, the study and understanding of the tumor microenvironment and the various cells subtypes and their functional capacities are essential to achieve more effective treatments, especially with the use of new immunotherapeutics. METHODS: Seventy cases of pancreatic adenocarcinoma divided into two groups 43 with resectable disease and 27 with unresectable disease were analyzed using immunohistochemical methods regarding the expression of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1), programmed cell death ligand 2 (PD-L2), and human leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G) molecules as well as the populations of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes, regulatory T cells (Tregs), and M2 macrophages (MM2). Several statistical tests, including multivariate analyses, were performed to examine how those immune cells and immunoinhibitory molecules impact the evolution and prognosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. RESULTS: CD8+ T lymphocytes and M2 macrophages predominated in the group operated on, and PD-L2 expression predominated in the unresectable group. PD-L2 was associated with T stage, lymph node metastasis, and clinical staging, while in survival analysis, PD-L2 and HLA-G were associated with a shorter survival. In the inoperable cases, Tregs cells, MM2, PD-L1, PD-L2, and HLA-G were positively correlated. CONCLUSIONS: PD-L2 and HLA-G expression correlated with worse survival in the cases studied. Tumor microenvironment was characterized by a tolerant and immunosuppressed pattern, mainly in unresectable lesions, where a broad positive influence was observed between immunoinhibitory cells and immune checkpoint proteins expressed by tumor cells.

Effect of Ki-67 on Immunohistochemical Classification of Luminal A to Luminal B Subtypes of Breast Carcinoma.

It has recently been proposed to include an immunohistochemical marker of cell proliferation, Ki-67, as an element with which to classify the molecular subtypes of breast cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the introduction of the Ki-67 marker on the molecular classification of breast cancer by immunohistochemistry. This study was performed on 234 cases of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast submitted to two immunohistochemical classification panels, one including Ki-67 and the other not. The data obtained with the two classifications were correlated with well-established prognostic factors such as histologic grade, the number of lymph nodes affected and tumor size. The molecular classification without Ki-67 identified: 136 cases of luminal A (58.1%), 19 cases of luminal B (8.1%), 27 cases of human epidermal growth-factor receptor 2 overexpressing (11.5%), 27 cases of basal-like (11.5%), and 25 cases of nonbasal-like triple-negative tumors (10.7%). When Ki-67 was included, this situation changed significantly, with the following cases being identified: 72 cases of luminal A (30.8%) and 83 cases of luminal B tumors (35.5%), resulting in a Kappa score of 0.216. Evaluation of correlations between the luminal A and luminal B tumor subtypes and the selected prognostic factors showed a statistically significant difference only when Ki-67 was included and only with respect to histologic grade (p < 0.001). The new classification with Ki-67 significantly altered the prevalence of the luminal A and luminal B subtypes and improved correlation with the histologic grade.

Hamartoma mesenquimal rabdomiomatoso: um relato de caso / Rhabdomyomatous mesenchymal hamartoma: a case report

The rhabdomyomatous mesenchymal hamartoma (RMH) is a rare type of hamartoma, composed of randomly arranged striated muscle fibers in dermis and subcutaneous tissue, associated with normal mesenchymal elements. Our objective is to report a case of this rare entity that occurred in the nasal dorsum of a 4-year-old child...

O hamartoma mesenquimal rabdomiomatoso (HMR) representa um raro tipo de hamartoma composto por fibras musculares estriadas dispostas aleatoriamente em derme e tecido subcutâneo, associadas a elementos mesenquimais normais. O nosso objetivo é relatar um caso desta rara entidade que ocorreu no dorso nasal de uma criança de 4 anos...